Adventures in the city of culture and dog poo

Archive for September, 2010

Winds that
remind you
you’re a very vulnerable little organism
you should have kept all that wonderful
body hair
which nature,
seeing that you don’t use it
and took it for granted
has stripped

A woman in the supermarket
tells me
my broccoli is too expensive
so I put it
back

I park myself
in a vacant spot
Eagle eyes search
for inspectors
A tattooed couple
A wasted man with cane
and a monocle
A goth with a wooden pipe
All are candidates
Actors and conmen
Crafty buggers
they conduct sting operations
with military
precision

Man with no teeth
outside a kiosk
has turned into a statue
bent double
his gaze stays on the table
it’s safe down there
his arse knows this bench
his spine curved from the wind
his hair is now in autumn
his beer is on a loop

Leaves titter
Sun’s changed from oil to watercolour

No more dilly-
dallying
in the streets
hibernation’s calling
us from a to b
skip c to get to d
before it closes in
before the world slams its shutters
before the bars close
before the eyes shut
before the trees are naked
before the wind gets mad.

Red matches and campari, with a dash of Leonard Cohen, and the second cup of coffee of today. The kind of hangover that comes with a personalized nametag and high heels. Why am I so frustrated by the apostrophe in “Australian’s spend $60 a week on lottery tickets”? I can forgive grocers and newsagents, but not online insurance companies. Email sent.

Coffee today is furry and thick, a bit like my head. Can someone please turn the sun down it’s a little bright, ah, that’s better.

I’m fascinated by my new jar of fig jam. There are large green foetus-like objects floating in it.

My new favourite word is Schokokuchen. Don’t expect translation, I want some effort on your part. You can eat it.

Bananas and two pears and an unknown melon. Do you like pickles or do you call them gherkins? I also like die Knoblauchknolle, the garlic bulb.

Have you googled today? One day a few months ago, they replaced the google icon with a game of Pacman that you can actually play, causing me untold delight. Ten minutes of my life well spent, rather than saved.

It sounds rude to ask if you’ve googled today. The kind of thing one shouldn’t inquire about in polite company; a sex act or antisocial drug habit. But have you?

One word for drinking before going out is vorglüen – literally, priming an engine. It’s one of those funny verbs that split in two as soon as you use them. The German language is littered with the remains of split infinitives, the empty husks of Latin cases, and the graves of thousands of ancient exceptions to all the rules.

The falling snow makes slush and dirty puddles
While icy winds lash feet and legs and eyes
Its temperature my feeble mind befuddles
In windswept lanes with ever darkening skies.
One day it’s T-shirts, suddenly it’s coats
And gloves and jackets needed in the morning
Such energy the Man Up There devotes
To switching seasons quickly without warning!
Eight months of winter deep will freeze your mind
Until the sun brings birds, and spring, and thaw
Cast off black thoughts and put those months behind
This city now is golden evermore.
Yet summer’s heaven cannot stop my heart
From secretly awaiting Winter’s start.